Karnataka Elections 2018: Desperate BJP’s Failed Attempt To Hit A Six

The BJP enacted the election rigging drama in an apartment belonging to their leader Manjula Nanjamari.

The upcoming Karnataka election has almost reached a feverish pitch, as the D-day is less than three days away. It is akin to a T20 match in the slog overs, where the losing team in its last over is desperately trying to play catch up. This is a perfect example to explain the condition of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka. However, in a T20 match the honour of the game and code of ethics is supreme, one cannot say the same for the BJP’s moral and ethical compass. What they considered a sixer that would have perhaps changed the narrative, turned out to be a hit wicket. In football lingo this would be termed as a self-goal. Such is the desperation of the BJP that they can resort to all kind of lies, propaganda, and unethical means to build their visionless, leaderless narrative.

In a series of tweets, some leaders of the BJP from Karnataka along with Union Minister Prakash Javdekar and Piyush Goyal attacked Congress MLA Muniratha alleging that he was involved in electoral fraud where he had stacked thousands of IDs in an apartment he rented. In its press statement, the Election Commission of India mentioned that 9,746 EPIC cards were recovered along with five laptops and a printer from the apartment. However, the reality is far different from what the BJP had claimed. The details will shock and silence the BJP, and will comprehensively prove that the BJP is hand in glove in hatching this conspiracy against the Congress candidate. We demand that Javdekar who is also in-charge of the State for BJP, should resign from his post immediately for making this cooked up story in a bid to deflect attention from his Party’s corrupt and incompetent leaders in Karnataka.

The truth is that the matter has nothing to do with the Congress but everything to do with the BJP. The premises, which was raided and called to be the house of a Congress leader, is false. The house in which the IDs were found belonged to one Manjula Nanjamari who had rented it to Rakesh (her adopted son). The BJP and EC claimed she was a Congress leader. The fact of the matter is that Nanjamari and her son Rakesh are not part of the Congress at all. Manjula was a BJP corporator from HMT ward in Jalahalli who lost in 2001. Her son Rakesh had contested civic polls in 2015 on a BJP ticket and lost. Further, most recent photos of him with the BJP candidate from RR Nagar show their affiliations.

The BJP enacted this drama in an apartment belonging to their leader, Nanjamari. She has rented the apartment to her son who contested the 2015 BBMP elections on a BJP ticket. The apartment was raided by the BJP workers and not by police or EC. What is also interesting is that it was Rakesh himself who tipped off the police and the EC. This is a BJP conspiracy and we have exposed it. A high-level enquiry should be ordered by the EC against all those indulging in this conspiracy to get the election countermanded by planting fake evidence. We demand that an FIR be lodged against all the top BJP leaders involved in this case.

Union Minister Javdekar had the audacity to lie by saying Nanjamari and her son Rakesh don’t belong to the BJP. They are running a factory of lies. We have exposed their drama and if Mr Javdekar has even an iota of shame left, he must resign for his involvement in this conspiracy and trying to subvert democracy. They planned a conspiracy to defame the Congress but have been caught red-handed. We are certain that the people of Karnataka will give a befitting reply to the BJP’s lies and conspiracies.

Priyanka Chaturvedi is the National Convenor-Communication and National Spokesperson of the Indian National Congress. She tweets at @priyankac19.